Football superstar Messi and father quizzed over alleged £3.4m tax fraud

Messi gave answers for around half an hour after his father Jorge Horacio Messi was questioned. After they were whisked away in separate cars, Messi’s lawyer spoke outside the courthouse No 3 in Gava, a coastal town just south of Barcelona near Messi’s home.

“The Messi family has wanted that we act with transparency, clarity and with a sense of co-operation, and that is how things went today as well,” said Cristobal Martell, Messi’s lawyer.

“It was evident that there was little intent of committing fraud and a great willingness to normalise the situation with the tax office and to not get involved in a fierce battle with the state in an attempt to interpret the current tax regulations,” Martell said.

A complaint lodged by a Spanish state prosecutor in June said Messi and his father tried to conceal earnings from the player’s image rights. The complaint alleged the Argentina international owed 4m euros (£3.4m) in back taxes from 2007, 2008 and 2009.

Messi’s father made a payment of more than 5m euros (£4.2m) on August 14 to cover alleged back taxes and interest. That payment led the court to decide that neither Messi nor his father needed to post bail.

Friday’s hearing was to see if there are clear indications of illegality. If so, then the judge could recommend that the case be prosecuted, barring an out-of-court settlement.

If the case goes to trial and Messi and his father are found guilty, they could face a fine reaching 150 per cent of the amount of back taxes and possible prison time.

In the complaint, state prosecutor Raquel Amado alleges that from 2006-09 Messi “obtained significant revenue derived from the transfer to third parties of his image rights, income which should have been taxed”. The complaint says Messi “circumvented his tax obligations” by using shell companies in tax havens such as Belize and Uruguay.

Messi and his father have always denied any wrongdoing.